Podesta served as Chief of Staff to President William J. Clinton from October, 1998 until January, 2001, he also served from 1997-98 as both an Assistant to the President and Deputy Chief of Staff. Earlier, from January 1993 to 1995, he was Assistant to the President, Staff Secretary and a senior policy adviser on government information, privacy, telecommunications security and regulatory policy.

Currently, Podesta is a Visiting Professor of Law on the faculty of the Georgetown University Law Center, a position he also held from January 1995 to 1997, and also co-chairman of President-elect Barack Obama's Presidential Transition team.[2]